Chapter 2

"Oh come on!... Please!"

A soaked, frustrated Tamara whined while waiting at the traffic lights, frantically trying to open her umbrella. As always, she was late. Worse. It started raining outside - more like pouring - and her umbrella would not open... or that button she was trying to press hated her. Probably the second option. Yes, the second one.

'Great,' She thought desperately, 'Ugh, why me? Always me!' She was hysterically shaking her umbrella as she waited at the traffic light.

'Almost there... That's it! I give up!'

As she was mumbling to herself, another pedestrian joined her - with a put up umbrella. Seriously, Tamara asked herself grimacing at and strangling her own little disobedient object. She mentally growled, but managed to compose herself and ask the person for help so, desperately shaking the umbrella, she faced him.

"Hey, um, sorry for disturbing but can you help me put up my umbrella?"

Without any word, the amused stranger took it from Tamara.

"Today has been a disaster. This is not me! I'm an organized person. How did it all turn out to be this way? I overslept, lost my bus, oh, and I didn't even get to eat and now this rain and this thing I just bought. I think it's brok-"

Her mouth could not utter a word as her wide open eyes adjusted to the now put up umbrella.

"Broken....Uh, it's probably because I have loosened it up a bit."

'The gentleman', as Tamara decided to name him, instantly burst in laughter then turned it down to a chuckle, scratching the back of his neck, "I'm sure you did,"

"Oh no!" Tamara flinched, noticing that she was on the verge of missing her bus, "Thank you for helping me!"

She ran as soon as the traffic lights displayed the green color, and caught the bus, hopping in. After 30 minutes of riding on the bus, as silent as possible, Tamara entered the apartment and shut the door so her mother would not hear her.

"Tama? Is that you?"

'Oops!' She mentally slapped her forehead at the chirping voice.

"No, mom, it's a thief."

"What?"

"Yes, yes, it's me. Where are you?"

Of course it was her. Her older brother, Ruben, was on the other side of the earth, and her father was at work.

"Kitchen!"

As soon as she landed her eyes on her daughter, Viviane gasped, "You're wet! See? I told you to take your umbrella!"

Tamara sighed, "I know you did, but I bought one on the way."

"Yet look at you! Why are you never listening to me?"

"Alright, you win, mom. I'm too tired to argue at the moment."

"Of course I win. I'm always right!"

"And your argument is?"

"I'm your mother!" Viviane stiffly yet proudly stated.

Tama growled inwardly but tried to stop herself from boiling over. She massaged her temples and spoke:

"I had a rough day and it's not even half the way to the end. I'm starving, I'm wet, I missed my bus in the morning, I didn't have time to brush my teeth or comb my hair-"

"Yuck! Tamara!"

"I know, I know! Yet," She emphasized the word, "despite all of these, I managed to look extraordinary today and you tell me off about an umbrella I forgot?"

Her mother raised her hands in defense, "Sorry."

"It's ok," Tamara sneaked a smile on her lips that mirrored her mother's, hugging her mother, and walked to the table, ruffling her hair. She tasted the food Viviane cooked and (mentally threw up) subtly grimaced. She slowly turned to face her mother, spoon in hand.

"Mom? I don't think you did it correctly."

Her mother's smile was instantly replaced with a frown.

"Don't like it, don't eat it."

"Did you at least go through the recipe?" Tamara skeptically asked, following her mother around the kitchen when Viviane abruptly turned her way and seriously declared, hands on hips:

"I am the recipe!"

Tamara tried to suppress a laugh, "Mom, a.k.a. 'The Recipe', your mushrooms are burning."

The housewife directly triggered herself to the cooker at the poor minced mushrooms while Tamara subtly took a step backwards then another one and so on until she tiptoed out of the kitchen. Whenever her mother was furious (or cooking), it was better to stay at a proper distance away from her, as her brother always used to say.

Tamara took a quick shower and left the apartment in a hurry to the hop in the bus. A new day at her job. Working in a book store was a real adventure because she was surrounded by big books everyday... literally. Seriously, two of her colleagues were forced to wear book customs. She personally thought that was ridiculous. It was a bookstore not a sandwich restaurant.

"Hey! Wait, wait!"

Tamara flinched and stood up from her seat, noticing that she had missed her stop.

"Thank you!" She shouted as she jumped out of the bus and wondered how could she be that way, daydreaming non-stop. She needed to stop, she knew she had to do that, but it engulfed her sometimes. Going back to her real life, Tamara instantly checked her clothes for any possible stains or button done incorrectly, but, fortunately, she looked nice and clean. Every time something was wrong with her appearance she would worry because of two major reasons: one, because of her extra-nagging mother and two because of her obsessed boss, Sharon who once turned her day upside down. One day she would walk into the store as always when a lock of her hair escaped her clip. Oh, how big of a lecture she had received about manners!

Sharon was like the younger version of her mother, only a mild one. How sad! And Ruben. Ruben, her older brother, was so free. He was in Australia after all, trying to fit in and build a family of his own with a loving wife, sweet kids... a lyrebird maybe... Suddenly, she was hungry again. A big croissant the size of a normal house would have done then, but she remembered she still had to work which disappointed her.

Gathering the courage she had saved up in those two minutes while she was staring blankly at her reflection in some shop window, Tamara moved her feet to the bookstore, entered and let out a sigh of relief seeing that her boss was nowhere near her. Sharon was always over enthusiast or seemed to be. She would always give many tasks to her employees when in fact she would only sit in her chair, feet on the table, and a magazine full of gossip about celebrities to rest her eyes.

She neatly placed her bag beside the armchair in which she sat herself. How comfortable! But as minutes passed, she got bored and what was there to do? Reading, one of her great passions, but she was too tired (and lazy) to concentrate on reading. Tamara successfully just ended her 'friendship' with her one month cold and there were only a few chances she would understand anything she was reading so she decided to just look out the window at the crowded streets and at the busy people. She suddenly felt sad. Those men, women, children ran all day for nothing; they wasted their time, seeking always more: more success, more money, more fame, always more while maybe neglecting their dear ones and their Father. Thinking of how mankind decreased, she involuntarily dozed away from time to time since no one wanted to buy something.

"Ah! I hate fish!"

Tamara yelled as a thud woke her up.

"What?"

She froze as the questioning voice of a young man with handsome features, "What?" She could only repeat the question that amused stranger addressed her, blinking two times.

"I'd like to buy this."

"Take the Risk. Oh, this is a great book, " She told him the price, subtly examining him as he was handing her the money. He was...smiling! He suddenly looked up, catching her red handed. She quickly looked down as she felt a wave of heat hitting her. Clearly, her cheeks were red as tomatoes. That was embarrassing!

"Sorry for waking you up and I'm not a fan of fish neither."

"I-I-It's not- Wait. Did I say it out loud?"

The stranger laughed and nodded in reply, turning and leaving the store. As soon as the door closed, Tamara ran at the glass window door and glued her face on it, checking if he was gone. Positive!

"Oh man! I messed it up again! Why am I always doing it? And he was cute which is worse. What would he think about me! Oh no, oh no, I don't even want to know! Urghh!"

Tamara ruffled her hair and shifted on her feet, tightly squeezing her eyes shut at the bad memory she had just created. How could she be that silly, she wondered.

Resigned, as she sank in her chair, the door opened again and in entered the man before.

"You forgot to give me the change."

Her face paled. How could she forget that?

"I'm so sorry. Today was awful. I can't even think clearly. Here!"

"It seems that you can't even remember what happened 5 minutes ago," he chuckled, "Keep the money. You gave it to me, don't you remember? Here!"

The stranger placed a paper bag on the counter at which Tamara raised a questioning eyebrow and looked inside the bag only to pull out a doughnut. He smiled and extended his hand.

"I'm Aron."

Tamara shook the hand then flashed her eyes open in recognition, "I'm Tamara," She grinned, "So, if you don't mind me asking, what is it with you and long-distance relationships?"

"Look, about that, I'm sorry for messing up your presentation-"

"Nah, it's alright. I sort of overreacted. I doubt the studies now. Anyway, putting this thought aside, you seemed really confident about your own opinion. It was like you have actually experienced such situation before and if I'm not mistaken, you've been hurt."

"Let's just say that I love my baby sister and I hate seeing her suffer."

"Oh, I understand now. Thanks for helping me out with the umbrella."

Aron chuckled again, "Well, if you hadn't loosened it, I wouldn't have been able to put it up, wouldn't I?"

They both laughed.

"You're right," Tamara replied looking down at the doughnut in her hand.

"Thanks for this, too. It was a nice gesture to do for someone you don't even know."

"You looked tired and hungry after all. I just guessed it after the rush you were in at the traffic-"

Aron was interrupted by his own phone ringing, "I have to go now. It was nice meeting you, Tamara!"

"You, too!" She shouted after him as she made his way out of the bookstore.

He seemed really nice and Tamara had been sort of mean to him at her presentation. What if he was actually right? She did not have to be right about everything, did she? No. And science cannot explain everything. There were so many things that cannot be explained and she should know it better. Maybe he was right and she was only rejecting any idea that did not match her way of thinking. Slowly, her thoughts shifted completely to him and the fact that he came back to give her a doughnut. How sweet of him!

And so the days passed, weeks had set upon a single thought - Aron and his smile (uum... I mean the doughnut). His smile assisting her actions everyday, his voice that would hunt her from time to time. Fortunately, it all had died down lately.